Parade of Fools-Believing in the May 21st Date

I was in Westbury, Long Island on Sunday afternoon and a parade of vans, cars and buses passed me on Old Country Road covered with signs and posters warning of the end of the world on May 21st, which happens to be this Saturday. I have to say they were getting attention. I've already written a blog entry titled, May 21st-The End of the World? Not! which explains why I think this whole thing is ridiculous, as do most others. These false warnings and the amount of media coverage they've received is absurd. I don't blame the media for covering the story. Yet, I'm concerned that this misleading, frightening information about the world coming to an end beginning with a catastrophic earthquake, is being placed on billboards, where it upsets and confuses people and disturbs children. All the money that is being wasted on this end time campaign could have been used for better purposes. Perhaps Harold Camping will one day acknowledge that before God. I imagine he'll be on his knees when he does so.

At a Communion Party I attended on Saturday, someone asked me what I thought about this latest apocalyptic scare. "I'm not worried," was my response. Firstly I said, "When the Pope tells me that things don't look good and we're in for some rough times and perhaps living through the end times, then I'll start to worry. Until then, I'm not concerned." Someone at the table, (who happens to be Jewish and related to me through marriage) replied, "I agree with that!" Of course it says in the Bible, that no one knows the day or hour of the end of this world as we know it or Jesus' return in glory. As one professor pointed out, "If Jesus didn't know the date of his return, when he was questioned about it, why would Harold Camping have that information? Does Harold Camping know more than Jesus?" Of course not! What I find fascinating is how many people believe in this absurd warning and feel they have to join this "movement", and invest large sums of money in it. Camping has done this before and incorrectly chosen an apocalyptic date on which nothing happened.

There is a website I found titled, "Refute Camping," which you can check out. I don't understand why he was able to put up billboards of this type. I think it's wrong that he was "allowed" to pay to put up this type of inflammatory, frightening, misleading information which makes people nervous. That doesn't make sense to me. Why should he be allowed to mislead the public, because of his erroneous thinking and calculations?

The Church should realize that next year in the year 2012 these end time scenarios and warnings will be everywhere. The Church should address this and help people deal with all these end time scares, as children are talking about this stuff and it's unnerving some of them. Some people are taking the 2012 date more seriously. People are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the building of underground shelters and making millions selling "equipment" and life saving gear for the end time.

NJA